Bring It On
by Lawsy89
Summary: Oneshot. Just little Alt. take 4x16.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Vampire Diaries or any of its characters.**

**A/N** Just little Alt. take 4x16 and something that's been sitting on my computer for a couple of weeks.

* * *

**BRING IT ON**

My patience was at its end. Today having gone from bad to worse and all of it thanks to Elena. Elena who had turned her emotions off and become nothing but a hollow shell of her former self, thanks to Damon's sire bond. Elena who had purposefully let me fall earlier today, during the cheer competition. A fall which had fractured many places in my back and would have been a permanent injury had I been human. The smug and unapologetic smirk on Elena's face, infuriating me and it took all of my self-control not to rip that ridiculous blue ribbon out of her hair and stuff it down her throat.

No, you can't, this is Elena, one of your best friends and if she was truly herself right now, she would never set out to intentionally hurt you. I repeated in my head as a mantra, in an attempt to calm myself down.

Watching her as she then walked away, careless, with Stefan following her as always, without even asking me if I was okay. A sentiment I knew wasn't needed, with being able to heal quickly, but still it was polite to ask. Brushing off the school doctor and assuring everyone around me, that I was fine. Elena and Stefan then disappearing and my anger at my now emotionless best friend all but fading, until they started to announce today's winners. First place of which, should have belonged to me and my squad. Hating myself for not trusting my instincts earlier that day when Elena had first asked about rejoining the squad – she hated cheerleading. Thought it was juvenile, an opinion I had always thought she had because she had never been very good. The three of us, Bonnie, Elena and myself all joining the squad together our sophomore year, me because it was something I loved, something I was good at. While Elena I knew joined, because her mother had been a cheerleader and Bonnie had joined to give her support.

The two of them having always been closer. For despite the three of us growing up together, it had always been Bonnie and Elena. Bonnie and Elena with their secrets, Bonnie and Elena who always seemed to have each other's backs. While I was nothing more than the third wheel, there to help when they needed me and then discarded and forgotten about when they didn't. Just like when Bonnie, first found out she was a witch, who was the first person she went running to tell – Elena. Or when I had first turned and Bonnie couldn't even stand the sight of me, but had no such thoughts of loathing towards Elena, when she turned. No warning's about she would do, if she couldn't keep her thirst under control, if she hurt somebody.

There's always seemed to be a double standard, when it comes to Elena and then everyone else.

Congratulating then, as was expected from me, the winning squads. A victory that was just another thing in my life that had been taken from me, thanks to Elena.

Since becoming a vampire, I had longed since gotten over my irrational jealously of my best friend. Of accepting that I would always be the second choice, nothing more than the afterthought, to everyone around me. Or at least... I had fought hard this past year to convince myself that I had.

Something that was made difficult every night when I went to sleep. My dreams being plagued with memories filled with pain, torture, disappointment and even death. My death. The love that I had for my new life, the new me, not enough to erase all the resentment I felt at times towards Elena, for being the cause of more than one of my suffering's. For being the reason I had been smothered with a pillow and then left to awake, scared and alone, as I transitioned into something I never even knew existed and all to send a message to Elena, her vampire boyfriend and his brother.

His brother who had his own special place in my nightmares. Nightmares that were a cage and made me feel as hopeless and as powerless as I had felt, when I was still the naïve little human, under his compulsion. A situation that I knew I had on my own walked into, but that when Elena and Stefan found out, or at least partially found out, what it was Damon was doing to me, they had done nothing to help. Damon using me as his own personal blood bag. His toy. Unable to run, or to scream, or even try to fight back, no matter how much of a waste of time it would have been. The exact details of everything that had happened between us, being something that I had never spoken aloud, to anyone. It taking me an extraordinary amount of control, to be able to stand in the same room with Damon and not want to empty my stomach. His presence, more times than not, making my skin crawl.

But I kept mouth shut. I moved on. Or at least pretended to, for the sake of Stefan and Elena and everyone else.

Just like I pretended to move on, quickly, after being used as bait – on more than one occasion, for both Elena and the Salvatore's. There still being tiny holes in the desk at school, from where Alaric had impaled my hands with pencils.

We all risk our lives, give up everything, to protect Elena. Be there for her when she needs us. But that same courtesy is rarely, if ever, given back. Especially to me and especially not if at the same I'm in trouble, Elena is also. Elena who despite at times risking her own life, for her friends, it is still nearly always her friends and the people that care about her, that end up getting hurt or worse. And yet still we continue to risk our lives for her. Bonnie even losing her magic, as well as the suffering of her grams on the other side, all in an attempt to save Elena from being a vampire.

And why?

Why does this one girl affect so many people's lives? Why does she seem to be the one we are always so willing to save, no matter the cost to ourselves or others we care about?

Because she'll always come first, a small voice inside me whispered

To the Salvatore's, to Bonnie, to everyone. Everyone willing to bend over backwards to save her life, even me. Her best friend. Who always has to hide how much it hurts, to always be overlooked, or forgotten about. Playing the part they all cast me in – the vampire Barbie, too afraid of losing everything, if I for a moment, didn't act like they wanted me to. The way they expected me to. Nobody looking deeply enough at me to see the truth. See through the mask I wear day in and day out.

Nobody except for one.

One who if the others found out about how I was truly beginning to feel about him, they would abandon me. Not being able to understand. Or kill me. Just as Damon had wanted to do when I was first turned. No one allowed to be made aware that I was slowly, but surely, falling for the one man that seemed to, in some way, always put me first. A man who had saved me more than once and a man that despite everything he had done, everything he had done to my friends, as well as the two times he had put my life in danger, I couldn't bring myself to hate as I had once done.

Klaus.

Klaus who made me feel special. Treasured. Made me feel things, no one before him had ever made me feel, no matter how hard I had tried in the beginning to deny it. All my life dreaming of my Prince Charming. Of a man to choose me over everyone else, to put me first above everything and be their first choice, not a consolation prize. A rather selfish wish that I had once thought I had found in Matt and then in Tyler, but I was wrong. Matt, despite everything he said was not over Elena and couldn't handle the monster I had become. While to Tyler, his pack and his constant need for revenge against Klaus, will always come first. A need that in the end resulted in the death of the ones Tyler considered his pack, as well as his mother.

Tyler never was one for thinking of the consequences of his actions.

Actions that despite knowing could lead to nothing but blood and death, should he fail, I did nothing to stop. No matter how much and how loud, a part inside of me, protested the idea. But I was afraid. Everyone, not just Tyler, wanted Klaus dead or put down, as was Tyler's plan, everyone but me who was too much of a coward to point out the many flaws in his plan. To try to get him to stop. Instead helping Tyler and offering him a better plan, whilst still staying safe behind my mask. Not seeing when that slut of a werewolf Hayley, snapped my neck, betraying us all. The night then ending in the only way it could, in a bloody massacre. A part of me hating Klaus for Carol's needless murder, but not as much as another part of me. That same part that wanted to speak up, wanted to talk Tyler out of his plan for Klaus, understanding why it was he had killed her.

He was hurt. Angry. Betrayed.

And he had wanted to inflict that same pain he felt on the one who had caused his. A feeling that I could emphasize with as I knew if I ever found myself in the same position, despite liking to think I would make a different choice, I knew in reality that I wouldn't. Or if it meant protecting someone I cared for, I knew I would again make the same decision.

I couldn't even bring myself to hate Klaus when he, only a week ago, impaled me through the stomach with a floor lamp and then bit me, his bite fatal. Something that was just another act to cause Tyler pain. An act this time that was fueled by so much more than just his anger at Tyler and the loss of his hybrids – he was grieving. Grieving the loss of his brother that I knew, that I had seen in the moments I only ever seemed to see, that he cared for, far more than he wanted anyone to know.

A death that I couldn't believe Stefan had allowed Elena and Jeremy to actually carry out. Not one of the people I call my friends seeming to think, again, about the consequences of their actions. The far spread consequences of what killing Kol would be. The least of which was Klaus' own wrath, something I'm sure if any of them did for a moment consider, were all counting on Klaus' feeling's for me, to fix it. To once again play the blonde distraction. A role that was next to impossible for me now, as with my own growing feeling's for the original hybrid, it made it so that I hated lying to him. Deceiving him. Hated playing on the emotions he had for me. Especially for people who thought they were better than him but weren't.

Because none of us were.

We had all killed. All hurt, both intentionally and unintentionally, others. And we had all done it in the name of people we cared about. Just as Klaus' actions were driven from a similar place to protect his own family. A family that he had been protecting in one way or another for a thousand years.

Stefan was right. Klaus was right. We are the same.

The only difference being that unlike Klaus, Stefan and I had people we could call friends, family. We weren't alone, like he was.

Although there were days that I felt that I was.

The feeling's I had been desperately fighting, finally breaking through when once again, faced with death, I found myself in the arms of the man who always seemed to be saving me. His blood healing me and filling me with a burning warmth, that combined with his strong embrace, was enough to destroy the wall I had built to keep the feeling's I had for him behind.

Tyler's forced absence only making it then easier for the lingering feeling's I had been holding onto for him, to fade that much quicker. The numerous messages I kept leaving for him, not being from a place of longing, of love, like I knew all my friends thought. But from guilt. Guilt that I no longer felt for him like I once did and guilt for slowly falling for the man that forced him away.

I then laughed to myself. Who would have ever thought, that the prince charming I had been waiting for was actually the big bad wolf. Or hybrid as he was in this real life fairytale.

A text from Stefan asking me to come to the boarding house ASAP, then pulling me from my thoughts.

Probably some new trouble with Elena, I thought, rolling my eyes. Stefan's probably caught her feeding off another cheerleader. A part of me, the same part that she had dropped earlier today, wanting to leave Elena to her own mess for once. She had killed Kol, yet it was me who then had to deal with a hell bent on revenge Klaus, while she and the rest of them left to find the stupid cure. Not one of them telling me what Elena and Jeremy had done, until they were already long gone, leaving me with an enraged hybrid and a charred body to deal with.

I sighed. Stefan had asked for my help and despite everything he was still my friend. Some days even more than Elena.

Quickly getting changed, before heading over to the boarding house and finding it loud, body packed and over flowing with the smell of alcohol and sweat.

It was a party.

A party that Elena had thrown, Stefan explained, because he was keeping her from all the vervain free, walking, talking, blood bags. Before picking up an already half-drunk bottle himself, his own patience I coud see worn out and then pointing over to where Elena was dancing on a table in the corner.

"I almost forgot what that looked like." I sighed, mostly to myself.

"What, Elena smiling?" Stefan asked.

Typical, I snarked silently in my head, once again everything must be about Elena.

"No." I said, my voice perfectly controlled. Masked. "Fun." It felt like a lifetime since I truly had any light fun. And not the Elena-centered drama, all our lives seemed to revolve around. "I know all of this is bad. Very bad. But doesn't looking at her right now, just make you want to let go?" I asked him.

Being unsurprised when he immediately looked for a reason not to enjoy himself and the party around him. But not being able to stop myself from laughing, both in delight and surprise, when after encouraging him to find a girl and dance, he picked me up. Throwing me over his shoulder. The two of us then finishing off the bottle Stefan had and with laughter and large smiles, immersed ourselves amongst the dancing bodies. The both of us letting go and having fun, until we were joined by Elena.

"Look who finally joined the party." She said, it then taking everything in me to not slap her, when after Stefan asked if she was jealous to see the two of us dancing together, she invited me to take him for a spin.

My anger then reaching boiling point moments later, when I found Elena with my mother pinned against a wall. The sound of my mother's head impacting loudly with the hard wood, being what caught my attention. The only thing stopping me from ripping Elena's head off, after shoving her away, being Stefan, who tried uselessly to calm me down.

"Calm down?" I growled at him incredulously. "I'm going to ring her skinny little neck." I vowed.

Elena taking that moment to run by us, taking my mother with her. Stefan and I immediately following her trail into the woods. My anger increasing with every step. Each call of her name, getting closer and closer to a growl.

"Agh! I can't believe she's doing this." I vented to Stefan. "And you know what, I don't care either. Hurt me, fine, i'll heal. But she hurt my mum, Stefan and humanity or no humanity, when I find her..." I promised before Stefan cut me off.

"This isn't really her, Caroline. You have to remember that." He said, in a vain effort to calm me down. "Right now she's the worst version of herself and the last thing we can do is give up on her. Just like she would never give up on us."

Once again he was protecting Elena, no matter who else might get hurt.

"I'm sorry, Stefan, but I can't do that." I knew my words shocked him. "I'm done making excuses for her. I'm done cleaning up her mistakes, the bodies that she dropped both before and after Damon made her turn it all off. Or did you forget about a certain original that she killed, whose body was then left for me to clean up, when you all went off searching for that stupid cure. And all because perfect little Elena couldn't handle being a vampire." I wasn't holding back anymore.

"News flash, Stefan – none of us could handle being a vampire when we first turned and at least Elena had the comfort of knowing what she was and what was happening to her when she woke up in transition. Not all of us were so lucky. Not to mention, how pathetic is it that the girl in love with two vampires, is also the one who can't handle becoming one herself. And then on top of that, that same compassion filled girl, then committs vampire genocide. Something that not one of you thought about when she told you all about her plan for Jeremy to kill Kol. The two of them not only killing the twelve needed to complete the stupid mark, but thousands, if not tens of thousands and not one of you tried to stop them."

"Caroline..." He tried, but I wasn't done.

"Don't Stefan. I don't want to hear whatever excuse you have to once again defend her, because there's nothing you can say that will justify the senseless mass murder of Kol's entire sire line. Not to mention the retribution that Klaus or Rebekah or Elijah will now claim over their brother's death." I told him. "Those vampires she killed had lives Stefan and good or bad, it was not up to Elena to decide that they were worth nothing, worth less, than her own desire to be human again."

My words had silenced him and I could see it in his eyes that he hadn't thought about all the lives Kol's death had ended. His focus at the time being on finding the cure for Elena.

"And she doesn't deserve to be human, Stefan." I continued. "Nor will she continue on living at all, if when I find her, my mum is dead." Were my departing words to Stefan, before I took off running at vampire speed, all my senses on alert.

Listening carefully for even the slightest sound of movement, of where either my mother or Elena could be and slowing to a human walk when I heard the softest of sounds. My feet not making any noise louder than a whisper as I walked, my eyes and ears both watching and listening to everything around me. Hearing a second too late, the sound of rapid footsteps behind me, before I was thrown into a nearby tree and then over Elena's shoulder onto the ground. Her hand wrapped around my throat.

"Come to save mummy, have you." She said, her hand tightening. "Or maybe you've come to try and ring my skinny little neck." She smirked, using the words I had threatened earlier. "Although at the moment, it looks like I'm the one doing the ringing."

My own hand then coming up to grasp hers and using my superior strength to crush all the bones in her hand. Her surprised and pain filled scream filling the air, as I then – still grasping her crushed hand, pulled back sharply, breaking her wrist. Before throwing her off me, her body landing a few feet away.

"Where's my mum, Elena?" I asked.

The painful groans escaping her lips as she reset her wrist and her hand healed, strangely filing me with a satisfaction I hadn't known that I yearned for.

"Elena, I'm not playing around, where is she?" I asked again, when she didn't answer.

"Not here." She slowly stood to her feet, her face blank. "And just for that, I'm going to wait for the vervain to leave her system, before draining sweet, mummy dearest slowly and making sure you're there to watch."

She then threw her leg out, attempting a round house kick to my face, that I easily ducked, before blocking the punch that followed. The two of us then ending up with one hand wrapped around the others throat. It taking barely a flex of my hand to remove her grip. Taking her by surprise then, when I headbutted her. Pulling back the arm of the hand I was still holding with a loud snap. The move dislocating her shoulder. Before kicking out one of her knees from behind, shattering it, making her fall and then using her now dislocated arm to subdue her in a chokehold.

She struggled to breathe.

"I'm getting tired of having to repeat myself, Elena – where is she?" I asked, as she uselessly tried to struggle. Tightening my hold and making her cry out. "Stop trying to fight me Elena, I'm stronger than you are. Now tell me where my mum is?"

But she didn't answer. She laughed. Or what I interpreted as laughing.

"Why? You won't kill me, Caroline. You're weak." She choked out. "You're still that same pathetic girl you were, when you were human. Always trying so desperately to be just like me. And so desperate for any guys attention that you'd do anything to keep it." She laughed again. Or tried to. "No wonder you have all those dirty thoughts about Klaus, he's the only one equally as pathetic enough to want you."

"Shut up!" I growled.

Having enough. Releasing her only long enough to pin her back to a tree, my hand then punching through her chest, to grasp her heart. Her eyes going wide, her jaw dropping open with a gasp. Just as Stefan and Damon arrived, their eyes as wide as Elena's. Elena who tried uselessly to pull my hand out of her chest, but I took care of that with a quick snap to both her wrists, before pining them above her head.

"Caroline." Stefan spoke carefully, but I could still hear the surprise in his voice, for the way he had found us. "You don't want to do this, she's your best friend."

This time it was me who laughed.

"My best friend? Really? You mean the girl who took my mother, wanting to feed from her and also just tried to kill me. Or how about the girl that despite knowing what Damon was doing to me – abusing me, feeding off me, raping me." I spat the last two words violently.

It was the first time I had ever spoken aloud everything that Damon had done to me while I was under his compulsion. Seeing from the corner of my eye both Stefan and Damon flinch.

"Did absolutely nothing to try and help or to stop it." I continued. "Only giving me a necklace to keep from being compelled further. But none of that undid everything he had already done. Everything I then had to forget and forgive. Pretending that just the sight of Damon doesn't make my skin crawl and all just to make everyone around me happier. Just so that for Elena, things aren't awkward."

"Caroline..." I could hear the despair in Stefan's voice.

Knew how much he hated that he hadn't been strong enough to stop Damon when he first arrived in Mystic Falls.

My grip on Elena's heart tightening slightly as I spoke, making her gasp. "C-caroline, please." She gasped out begging, tears filling her eyes.

"No. No more. I'm done." I told them all.

"Blondie..." Damon began to try, taking a step towards me until I bared my fangs at him, keeping him back.

"Take another step and she dies." He stopped, reluctantly and I could see that if he had to, if I hurt his precious Elena that he would kill me.

Well, bring it on, Damon, I thought. I've knocked you on your arse before.

"Caroline, please, let her go." Stefan pleaded. "You're angry right now and you have every right to be, but once that anger fades you'll regret whatever actions you take."

"No I won't." I said, realizing as I spoke that I meant truly them.

Before looking deeply into Elena's eyes. Eyes that I could clearly see were dancing in fear.

Huh... guess she isn't as emotionless as she's been boasting about all day, I thought before continuing.

"Because unlike some, I'm not weak." I told her. "I'm not the girl who had to turn all her emotions off, just to be able to cope with the death of her brother. A death she caused all in the pursuit of a cure, for a weak and pathetic girl that couldn't handle being what she now was." I leaned in until my face was directly in front of hers.

"No, I'm the girl that despite the numerous times I've been tortured, despite all the times that I've been hurt, or betrayed, or used, or the people I've lost, is still standing and all with her humanity still on. I'm the girl that despite having no idea what was happening to me when I first woke up, has made and will continue to make a better vampire than you will ever be. Now..." I used the hand inside her chest to push her higher up the tree. Releasing my grip on her hands and letting her arms drop to her sides. "One last time and you better answer me or I promise I'll make you as heartless as you've acted all day – where. is. my. mother?" I spoke each word with a tightening of the grip around her heart.

"Agh!" She cried out, both Stefan and Damon wanting to help but holding themselves back. "She's... that way." She raised her hand enough to point to her left.

Revelling in the fear in her eyes for a moment, the power I had in this moment, over her and over her life. Before removing my hand from her chest and letting her drop to the ground. Stefan and Damon immediately running to their side, as she gasped for breath and grabbed her chest.

"I hope for your sake Elena, that my mother's still alive and that you didn't lie to me." I said, before taking off in the direction to where she had gestured.

Leaving her ever faithful puppies to handle her and finding, gratefully, my mother where Elena had said she was, unconscious at the base of a tree. The loud thumping of her heartbeat in my ears, letting me know that she was still alive. The blood I could smell coming from the wound on her head, being the only harm that Elena seemed to have done and wanting to get her home, I picked her up without waking her, before running home.

Her eyes not opening until after I laid her down on the couch in our living room.

"Caroline?" She asked dazed.

I nodded, with a soft smile, as I proceeded to wipe the blood off her forehead with a wet cloth. There was a cut there and the slightly glazed look in her eyes was making me worry she might have a concussion.

I would have to get her to the hospital. Get her checked out. Being more concerned when I had found her, with getting her home and out of the woods, away from Elena.

"It's me, mum." I said.

She looked around the room, unsure where she was, before trying to sit up. "Where... where am I? Where's Elena?"

"You're home. Safe." I assured her, while gently pushing her back down on the couch. "And as for Elena, I imagine Stefan and Damon have taken her back to the boarding house."

She tried to sit up again. "She's out of control. Something has to be done. She can't just go around attacking and feeding off whoever she wishes. She can't..." I stopped her.

"I took care of it, mum." I told her, earning an odd look. "She won't be coming after you or even think about hurting you again. Or anyone for that matter. Not after tonight and not unless she wants me to finish what I started." I said strongly.

I wasn't going to stand by after today and let this new Elena do what she wants and all because she believes she is entitled to it. And because Stefan and Damon are too in love with her, to do what might be needed to be done, to either get the old Elena back or stop her completely.

"Caroline..." My mother started warily, her eyes taking note of the dried blood that coated the back of my right hand. "What exactly happened tonight and what do you mean you'll finish what you started. Elena's your friend."

"No. She's not. Not anymore." I said. "Friends don't kidnap their friends mothers, nor do they then try to kill you."

My mum's eyes went wide.

"Elena tried to kill you, Caroline..." She tried to sit up again.

"I'm fine. I promise you." I pushed her back down. "I said that she tried to kill me, only tried. Forgetting that despite Alaric's training, I'm older, which means stronger than her. She never stood a chance." I assured her. "Besides I'm more worried about you and the possible concussion you could have. Can you walk?" I asked, just as my phone went off signalling that I had a new message. "Hold that thought." I said, before standing and pulling my phone from where it was still sitting in the pocket of the jacket I had been wearing earlier.

It was from Matt, asking me to meet him at Tyler's house. A request that confused me as I couldn't understand what it was he was doing there. Texting him back that I would as soon as I was able. As soon as I had taken care of my mum.

My mum who required a little pouting on my part, to get her to the hospital. Dr. Fell than clearing her with a mild concussion and orders for my mum to rest. An order that was easily followed, as after taking some Tylenol for the headache she had, she fell straight into bed. Not being able to bring myself to leave her, until I was sure she was asleep and even then I hadn't wanted to leave. Changing out of the dirt and slight blood covered clothes I was in, before texting Matt that I was on my way over. Being more than a little confused and surprised when after arriving at Tyler's I found myself unable to walk inside.

"Matt?" I called out. Seeing him then walk around a corner into the foyer, holding a letter in his hand. "Matt, why can't I get inside?" I asked him.

Seeing that his face looked just as stunned as mine, his eyes returning to the note in his hand, before stepping towards me and inviting me inside. An invitation that confused me, but nonetheless allowed me to enter.

I looked at him for an explanation.

"Tyler sent me this package in the mail." He started, his words causing me to look at him sharply.

Tyler had reached out to Matt, but he hadn't reached out to me. Knowing how hypocritical I sounded, even in my head, for being upset. Especially when my thoughts of late, hadn't been on my missing boyfriend, but instead on the man who had sent him away.

"This is for you." Matt then handed me the letter.

A letter that I knew I should find sweet, in the way that Tyler was trying to protect me. Only I couldn't help but feel that he wasn't. He was only protecting himself. It for some reason, maybe because of the feeling's I have for him, irking me that Tyler found it important to mention in the letter about Klaus not trying to kill him. The sacrifice he saw he was making, not being a sacrifice at all in my eyes. Not when it was his own actions that forced him to leave in the first place and feeling oddly angry that he wasn't even trying to fight for us at all. Instead running for his life. The life that I had begged Klaus to spare.

"He's not coming back." I whispered, stunned for a moment, before my anger took over. "That selfish, moronic, asshole!" I then all but screamed, taking Matt by surprise.

"Care?" He asked confused by my reaction.

Tyler having left Matt the deed to his house, explaining why when I had first arrived I couldn't walk in.

"I can't believe him." I ranted. "I can't believe that after everything, he's just going to run away again and what, I'm just supposed to be okay with that?" I asked, not wanting or bothering to wait for an answer. "Accept it as some noble sacrifice on his part and forget about the fact that this whole thing was brought about by his own actions. Actions that he never once thought through, caring only about those stupid hybrids, while listening blindly to everything that slut of a she-wolf said."

Matt looking completely lost and stunned by my words, not giving him an opportunity to speak before I began ranting again.

"And protect me. Since when has Tyler ever protected me?" Again not expecting an answer. "The last I checked, it was me always protecting him from Damon or from Klaus, for some reason or another. Or me getting used as bait to prove a point, or to lure him out and having to watch as he stands there and does nothing while his little pack of werewolf friends shoot me up with wooden bullets." I then laughed. "But hey, I guess I should feel thankful that he at least sent a letter this time. I guess that's a step in the right direction." I shook my head.

Wanting more than anything for this day to end.

"Care, I don't know what's going on with you right now, but you know why he left, why he had to. Klaus would have-" Matt tried, before I interrupted.

"Killed him." I said. "I know. And he would have already, would have the second that Bonnie's barrier dropped, if I hadn't begged for Klaus to show Tyler compassion and mercy for my sake. Leaving Tyler with his life, while I'm once again left behind and pushed aside, for everyone else and their needs."

No more. I repeated in my head, the same words I said to Elena earlier that night. No more, was I going to allow myself to be used and then cast aside. Always forgoing what it is I want, or what I need, in favor of what everyone needs from me. No more I was being just collateral damage.

I was done being their vampire Barbie.

Looking up then into Matt's face. "Did you know that Elena tried to kill both me and my mum tonight?" I asked him.

That had his eyes going wide.

"What, why would she... how could she?" He couldn't believe it.

"Because without her emotions she's a cold, heartless bitch, who cares about nothing but herself. And just as I told her and Stefan and Damon, I'm done cleaning up after her. Protecting her. From now on, she's on her own." I then dropped Tyler's letter. "And I'm done with Tyler too, who put unsiring Klaus' stupid hybrids ahead of our relationship. Ahead of me." I felt a tear fall down my cheek. "I thought maybe that he was different, that I was his first choice, but once again I was wrong. His pack," I spat the words. "was more important to him than I was."

A mistake I promised myself in that moment, that I wouldn't make again. With one name instantly coming to mind. Not giving Matt a chance to respond, before leaving at vamp speed Tyler's, now Matt's estate, and not even caring about what everyone else would think of my chosen destination. It being only minutes later that I was pulling up outside the large and magnificent mansion that was Klaus'.

Not even bothering to knock and letting myself in through the open front door, knowing that he had already probably heard me coming.

"Klaus!" I called out.

Hearing hushed voices coming from upstairs and following them to large bedroom. My eyes going wide in disbelief as I took in the sight of a half-naked and shirtless Klaus, along with a barely dressed Hayley still in her underwear.

"Caroline." Klaus whispered when he saw me. His eyes filling, I could see from here, with guilt and regret. "What are you doing here?"

"Taking what I want for a change, regardless of what everyone else thinks." My answer surprising him, before asking a question of my own. "Now what the hell is she doing here?"

The she-wolf in question, smirking in response before answering.

"Wow, I always pegged you for a dumb blonde, but I figured even you would recognize when two people have just finished having sex." She pulled a lace cami over her head. "Guess that's two guys now that prefer me over you." She gloated and I felt my hands clench at my sides. "Or did you really believe, that in all that time I had Ty to myself, we weren't indulging in something a little more primal."

Her words enraged me. Touching on something that despite all of Tyler's reassurances, I couldn't put out of my mind. Feeling the veins under my eyes start to show and my fangs descend. My anger at seeing the she-wolf that snapped my neck and knowing what it was she and Klaus had just been doing, as well as her words just now, couldn't be stopped and before I knew what was happening, I found myself across the room. My fangs tearing viciously through her neck. Her choking screams only spurring me on, until I could feel her heartbeat start to slow down. Pulling back just enough to see her eyes, before easily snapping her neck, just as she had done mine.

"I'd call us even, but unlike me, you won't be waking back up." I said, before turning to a shocked Klaus, whose eyes were watching me in amazement. "Hope you weren't expecting a round two?" I shot at him.

"Not at all." He smirked, the guilt and regret I had seen in his eyes just before, long gone. "I'm not one to repeat myself."

"But apparently one to slum it." He didn't react to my words.

Paying no attention to the now dead body, lying on his bedroom floor, and stepping towards me until he was close enough to reach up a hand and brush away some of the blood that was dripping down my lips.

I slapped his hand away.

"Don't touch me. Especially not after just being with that slut." I stepped away from him. "Speaking of which, can you please tell me why it is she was here in the first place and why of all people you slept with her?" I needed to know.

Needed to know if I was wrong about Klaus and how he felt about me.

"You know if I didn't know any better, I would say from your tone, that you were jealous, love." He didn't answer me. "But that couldn't possibly be why you killed the lovely Hayley now is it. Afterall I'm just the monster in your eyes, that ran your beloved Tyler out of town."

It not escaping my ears when he spoke, the pain in his voice, when he called himself a monster. Called himself what he believed I viewed him as.

I sighed. "He's not my beloved, Tyler. Not anymore." Not when I can't stop thinking about you. "And stop turning this around me, you still haven't answered my question – why was she here?"

"Protection. And to provide me with information on Katerina Petrova." The way his accent wrapped around Katherine's true name making me swoon. "Something, that now thanks to you I will need to find from another source. So perhaps instead of me answering your questions, you can answer mine. Starting with why it is you are really here, Caroline?"

"I told you, taking what I want for change." I answered.

"Hmm... and what is it exactly that you want?" He asked, his gaze holding mine intensely.

"You." His eyes widened in surprise. "I want you and I'm done pretending that I don't have any feeling's for you. That I don't feel whatever freaky connection that there is between us. And I'm done being everyone's second choice. Their afterthought. Or caring about what my so called friends will think when they find out that I care about you. That I want to take you up on your offer to get to know you. To see the world with you." It was now me who had stepped towards him, placing my left hand against his cheek.

His light sun-kissed skin, feeling soft beneath my hand.

"I'm not afraid to take what I want anymore. Or to admit that what I want is you. All of you. And that despite everything you've done, I don't think that you're a monster. I think... I think you're the only person to ever put me first, to choose me and that, if you still want me. If you can forgive me for all the times that I played distraction for my friends when they tried to kill you – then I'm yours." I smiled slightly, dropping my hand from his face, nervous about what his reaction would be to my declaration.

Would he turn me away? Reject me? Had he maybe never really cared for me at all, could it have all been an act? Or had I simply missed my chance altogether?

Jumping slightly, being too caught up in my worried thoughts, when his hand brushed a stray hair from my face. Before trailing down and cupping my cheek.

"You're not lying." He whispered, his amazing blue eyes, never leaving mine as I shook my head.

The air between us becoming electrified, as he continued to hold my gaze. The two of us locked in the other's eyes. I couldn't look away even if I wanted to and the emotions I could see swimming in his, making me feel sure that I had made the right decision to give in. The anticipation in waiting for his answer, killing me, until his lips finally descended on mine. My hands, at his touch, instantly reaching up to wrap around his neck. Parting my lips slightly and letting out a soft moan the moment his tongue made my contact with my own.

He tasted better than anything I had ever tasted. Better than blood.

The hand that had been cupping my cheek, falling to rest on the back of my neck. While his other wrapped around my waist pulling my hips against his own. This kiss making me feel things that I had never felt before. Made me feel alive, like never before. Being so different to the first kiss we had shared, when he was in Tyler's body. The day old stubble on his face, that he never seemed to shave, scratching against my jaw and driving me absolutely crazy. Until the two of us were forced to pull away to breathe.

His forehead coming to rest against my own.

"I hope you know, now that I have you, I've never letting you go." He warned, his voice dripping heavy in desire.

"I don't want you to." I smiled, pressing my lips against his and revelling the way he could make me melt with just a kiss, before pulling away.

He pouted slightly.

"As much as I would love to continue this, I'm not going any further with you until you've had a shower and removed every trace of that slut from you're skin. Not to mention you having a body to dispose of." I stepped out of his arms.

"I do believe you were the one to break her neck, love. Shouldn't you be the one to clean her up?" He asked, closing the distance I had put between us.

"Maybe." I said, letting my lips ghost over his for a third time, before again pulling away. "But unfortunately for you, you're the one that slept with her and in my book that leaves clean up to you." I then walked away, leaving him stunned. "Oh and one more thing." I said, pausing in the doorway to his bedroom. "When you're done taking out the trash, don't forget to burn those sheets and that mattress. That is if you ever want the chance of having me in your bed." I smirked at him, then leaving.

Thinking, as I made my way home, that tomorrow really was going to be a brand new day and wondering how long it will take him to get a new bed?


End file.
